Sunday, May 17, 2020. At a time when COVID-19 has led to families across America being asked to “shelter in place,” homeschool their children, and not visit loved ones in hospitals or nursing homes, I’m reminded of an unexpected comment from a member of a famous rock band.

Our son, Bo was born in August 29, 1968. A month before his birth, I had opened a new hotel in Greenville, SC and worked nearly 24/7 during the final month of my “bride’s” pregnancy. Though I rushed home to Winston-Salem, NC the night of his birth, it wasn’t until six weeks later that the family could join me in Greenville. Soon thereafter, the Beach Boys stayed in the our hotel while performing in concert at the Greenville Auditorium. The morning they were to leave, I asked if we could get a picture of our newborn son with them. They were most gracious, and the picture was taken.

Before handing Bo back to me, the band member holding him asked, “Is this your first?” I replied yes. As he continued to hold Bo in one arm, he pointed at him, looked up at me, and said, “You don’t understand it now, but right here’s what it’s all about.” He was right, family is what it’s all about.

This post is about a boat, the man who designed and built it, and a father that wanted his young daughter to grow up with the special memories of time spent with family onboard a boat — a specific boat — a Cargile Cutter Cruiser.

The Cargile Cutter Cruiser

The Cargile Cutter Cruiser was designed as a family boat. The late Allen Cargile, designer and boat builder, made his name building houseboats found on lakes and rivers throughout America. According to his son Jim — who ironically, I met when he became engaged to one of our daughter’s soriety sisters — the idea for the Cargile Cutter design came from a family vacation to Key West. As they cruised back and forth past the US Coast Guard base, Allen Cargile stared long and hard at high-bowed U.S. Coast Guard cutters. In them, he saw the future of an affordable, planing hull, family cruiser with the roominess of a houseboat. A few weeks after the family returned home, his father walked out of his design room with a carved model of his vision in hand. The Cargile Cutter Cruiser was destined to become a reality.

In 1977, when some boatbuilders were still questioning Cargile’s design, Allen took a 30′, single diesel powered, sterndrive Cargile Cutter from New York to Paris in 31 days — a feat that none of his critics had ever accomplished. Allen Cargile was a man of true grit. In his trip across the Atlantic Ocean, he proved his confidence in his boat.

I Want Your Boat

In late 2012, I received an email asking if we would consider selling the 1977, 30′ Cargile Cutter Cruiser that we had restored thirteen years earlier. SunSmiles was not for sale when I received Patrick Lee’s first email. Though we had debated selling her, after restoration and nearly thirteen years of ownership, the ‘old girl’ was a part of our family. The only reason we considered selling her was the fact that following the birth of our first two grandchildren, our cruising time had become non-existent.

After we had come to terms on the sale, Patrick said, “You’re probably wondering why I wanted your boat.” Yes, I wondered why he had tracked me down through the Internet to try and buy a boat that he had never seen, and wasn’t for sale.

He gave me a wonderful reason to sell the ‘old girl.’ When he was five years old, his father had bought a Cargile Cutter Cruiser for the family to enjoy. Now, he wanted his five year old daughter to grow up with the same wonderful memories he had of days aboard his family’s Cargile Cutter. Together, he and his daughter had searched the Internet for Cargile Cutters, and his daughter had chosen SunSmiles because she loved the name, the Fighting Lady Yellow hull, the high-gloss white decks, and the bright red canvas. Before taking delivery ofSunSmiles, Patrick bought a Cadillac Escalade EXT as a tow vehiclebecause his father had towed the family’s twenty-eight foot Cargile Cutter with the family’s Cadillac sedan. It was all part of reliving wonderful, childhood memories. I understood.

The History of Cargile Cutter Cruiser “SunSmiles”

SunSmiles was built the year that Allen made his historic voyage across the Atlantic. The first owner of the boat that was to become SunSmiles was a Texas oil man who apparently went belly-up, leaving the boat in a covered storage lot near Dallas, Texas. The second owner decided he wanted a Cargile Cutter Cruiser after touring the company’s plant in Nashville, TN in the early 1970’s. Unable to afford one at the time, he spotted the boat that would later become SunSmiles while making sales calls in the Dallas area during the late 1980s. He bought the boat for the price of several years of storage fees.

In the early 1990s, while driving from the Kalispell, MT airport to a meeting in White Fish, I saw my first Cargile Cutter in the side yard of a Kalispell home. A couple of days later, I was given permission to inspect the boat. That afternoon I left that 28′ Cargile knowing that if we ever moved to another coastal community, we would own a Cargile Cutter Cruiser. In 1999, when we made the decision to move from Raleigh, NC back to the Charleston area, I began my search for our family’s Cargile Cutter.

An internet search led me to Allen Cargile. Though retired, he welcomed my phone call and interest in the boat that carried his name. He became my treasured source of advice in choosing the right boat and in its restoration. Though only lukewarm on the idea of painting “his” boat Fighting Lady Yellow, with white decks, and bright red canvas, he was very complimentary of the final product. When the restoration was complete, and we started cruising to destinations along the ICW, I enjoyed calling Allen while in route, just to let him know the pleasure his boat was bringing us. I wanted him to know that it was a boat that was fun to cruise, and alway got attention when we pulled into a marina. I’m not sure who enjoyed the calls more, but rarely did one end in less than a half hour of conversation. He was a warm, friendly, and fascinating gentleman to talk to.

On March 23, 2011, Allen passed away unexpectedly after a brief illness. If he had still been with us when SunSmiles was sold, I know he would have been pleased that it was going to another family that wanted a Cargile Cutter Cruiser — and no other boat would do.

Journey to a New Home

On Monday, March 18, 2013, SunSmiles began its cross country journey to a new family and homeport in Portland, OR. You could say that it was sold and bought for the right reason — making lifelong memories.

Patrick and his family never got to see, much less cruise aboard SunSmiles. On the forth evening of the trip, disaster struck. On Interstate 80, twenty-three miles out of Laramie, WY, at a place called Sherman Summit, SunSmiles and two tractor trailer rigs were hit by what the highway patrol described as a hurricane force wind that capsized and destroyed all three. By the grace of God, the tractor trailer drivers weren’t seriously injured. The trailer hauling SunSmiles broke free of the tow truck as a wind burst lifted the front of the boat and trailer into the air. Once the trailer hitch gave and the trailer was free, the trailer and boat began flipping. The driver was able to regain control of the truck and stop without crashing.

Fortunately, the boat and trailer were insured before leaving Mount Pleasant for the journey west. In the aftermath, I helped Patrick find another Cargile Cutter, and over the years since, his daughter — just like her dad — has been able to make her own memories of spending days with her family aboard their Cargile Cutter Cruiser. Today, the family lives on an island, across our northwest border with Canada. Patrick recently completed a multi-year restoration of his Cargile Cutter. Though he purchased a hybrid cruiser for the family to enjoy while their Cargile Cutter was being restored, he’s still hanging onto the old memory-making Cargile Cutter Cruiser. We stay in touch, and on my birthday last month, he called and we “face-timed” while he and the family were cruising. What we both lost in the wreckage of SunSmiles, we’ve made up for in friendship.

We first caught a glimpse of Dick Trammell’s STREET-LEGAL NASCAR modified Ford Pinto when he entered it in the Racing Junk Virtual Car Show. We didn’t really have a proper place for it, so we wanted to reach out to Dick and find out more about him and his wild Pinto.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: While I enjoy writing about cruisingSlow Danceand “Thinking Outside the Boat”along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, I grew up with a love of cars and racing. Though I no longer race, taking the little red Pinto, affectionately known as “THUNDER,” to Cars and Coffee, and entering it in car shows, almost satisfies a “need for speed.”When Racing Junk contacted me about doing a feature on the little Pinto, they asked that I answer two questions. The instructions were to: “Be as short or as detailed as you would like!” They chose to use my response as submitted. If you’re into cars, hot rods, and racing, check out RacingJunk.com.

Written by Dick Trammell

A little of your background and how you got into this industry:

In 2016, I retired from a career in the hospitality industry. In the 1990s, while serving as the executive director of the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Division, I commissioned the first state motorsports poster in America, and declared North Carolina as “The Motorsports Capital of the World.” I did it to salute a sport and industry that has had a significant economic impact on my home state. Then, as now, the majority of NASCAR teams were based within close proximity to Charlotte, NC. At the time, we were home to Charlotte, Rockingham, and North Wilkesboro speedways, as well as a myriad of short tracks. In the late 1980s, when Bahari Racing, Michael Waltrip’s team, opened its new race shop in Mooresville, NC, the shop was designed to be visitor friendly. One entire wall of the reception area and hallway to the shop offices was glass so visitors could watch the mechanics working on various stages of building or prepping the cars. Only the engine room was windowless. Soon after, other area race shops wisely followed Bahari’s lead as “visitor friendly,” creating yet another attraction to keep visitors in the Tar Heel state at least another day.

I am only in the industry by virtue of my lifelong love of cars and racing. My mother swore that when I was two years old, I could name every car on the highway – of course, in 1948 when I was two years old, there weren’t many cars on the highway!

In 1955, when I was 9 years old, I started racing micro-midgets in the juvenile division of the Forsyth Micro Midget Club, in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. Since my car wasn’t finished, I drove a friend’s car in my first race. I started dead last and finished dead last, but I was hooked. Over the next two years, I lost only one other race. My “fledgling” racing career ended when Mother and her second husband split, but I was already “addicted” to racing.

My mother’s great-uncle, A.D. Burke, was one of the men that built Peace Haven Speedway, a ½ mile dirt track, with board fence and all, off Peace Haven Road in Winston-Salem. It was one of the first NASCAR tracks. When I was a child, I attended races there with my uncle, and when I was 10 years old, I got to drive an old A-Model Ford around the track for a few laps. The drivers that competed there were some of the early legends of NASCAR. Racing at Peace Haven ended when NASCAR made Bowman Gray Stadium home of its first and longest-running weekly Saturday night racing venues.

In 1960, my mother remarried, and this time to her high school sweetheart, who was a long time Gulf dealer in Winston-Salem. He was an amazing person. My first job as a teenager was pumping gas, changing oil, and washing windshields at his family-owned and operated Gulf Oil station. For me, that first job was a truly educational experience in cars and equally important, customer service. He was so trusted that customers often brought him their cars to trade-in because they felt he could negotiate a better deal for them.

The first car that I drove had a manual transmission, and my wife and I made our son and daughter learn to drive in cars with manual transmissions. Both continued to drive manuals for many years. I’m a firm believer that learning to drive in a car with a manual transmission will make a person a more attentive driver.

I attended my first sports car race at the old Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in 1965. It was there that I fell in love with Formula Vee racers. In 1984, I bought a 1972 Zink C-4 Formula Vee that had been sitting in an enclosed trailer in the warehouse of the owner’s father – untouched – for ten years! The owner, an engineer, had built the car and enclosed trailer with the best parts and engineering available. I joined Sports Car Club of America and started competing in SOLO I events to learn the racecourses in the Southeast before moving up into open-wheel competition. In 1987, I won the SCCA Southeast Division Solo I Championship. In 1989, I finished 3rd in the “SARRC MARRS Shootout II” on the road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In 1999 I was in the process of restoring the car for vintage racing when we moved from Raleigh, NC back to the Charleston, SC area. With mixed emotions, I sold the Formula Vee to buy a bigger boat.

The story of the car where it came from, how you acquired it, whatyou’ve done to it since and any plans you have for it.

1974 Ford Pinto “Street Legal” vintage NASCAR Modified racer

Now powered by 427 Chevy Big Block

Close ratio 4-speed tranny

An early Frankland quick-change rear end

A couple of years ago my wife and I were driving Westbound on I-40, heading home from Winston-Salem, when in the Eastbound lane I saw a 1930s-vintage, Bowman Gray NASCAR Modified coupe that had been converted to “street legal.” Much to my wife’s dismay, the moment I saw it, I started dreaming of owning one. In June 2019, I saw the “street legal” NASCAR Modified 1974, Ford Pinto for sale on the Internet, and the rest is history. Since I recently turned 74, I figure it will be my last race car.

The little red Pinto was built in Connecticut in the late 1970s by Mark Berndt and his father. It’s my understanding that Mark drove the car in the NASCAR Northeast Modified Series. The last time it was on the track was in a vintage race in 2010. Mark stepped away from racing after his father passed away. Gary Babineau, owner of Babineau Metal Works, in Auburn, IN had worked in CT during his engineering career and was familiar with the car and Berndt family. When he heard it was for sale as a “roller,” he bought it to convert to “street legal,” and to play with. Gary’s “claim to fame” is having built 18 beautiful, reproduction, 1960s vintage Indy roadsters, for museums and private collections. A man in New York saw the car on YouTube, tracked Gary down, and talked him into selling it. Last summer, when his daughter was getting her driver’s license, he sold the car to me in order to buy a daily driver for his daughter.

Since taking delivery of the car last August, I’ve changed the car’s number to #1, to reflect the fact it’s the first “street legal” vintage, NASCAR Modified in South Carolina. Though my wife questioned my sanity for buying it, she now climbs through the passenger side window (the doors of real race cars don’t open) and accompanies me on many rides. Most people question me about the noise of the exhaust, and then look at me with a shocked expression when I tell them the screaming of the square-cut racing gears of the quick-change rear end almost drown out the exhaust thunder!

Last September, after Hurricane Dorian hit Charleston, I was bringing the car home from a warehouse where it was stored for the storm, when I experienced what I thought was disc brake caliper seizing. Upon inspection, I found the welded spool in the locked, Frankland quick-change rear end had failed. When I contacted Frankland Racing, I learned that all new spools and axles are 31-spline rather than 12-spline like my original. Since I wanted to keep the car authentic (except for the motor and interior), I tracked down Jamie Frankland, the grandson of the founder of Frankland Engineering. In a call to him, I learned the welded spoon indicated it one of the original Frankland rear ends. He said that as soon as his grandfather and father had generated enough revenue, they began using forged spools. A friend and I drove the rear end to Balm, FL, for Jamie to rebuild. When he checked the numbers on the rear end, he said it was indeed one of the first the company had built. Today, Jamie Frankland still competes in vintage, dirt track, modified events, in his two vintage racers.

Though I would love to get the little Pinto on Bowman Gray or another ¼ mile asphalt flat track that it was built for, my plan is to use it for Cars and Coffee, and car shows. It is without question the most videotaped car that I’ve ever owned or driven! No matter where it goes, it always draws a crowd. At the first Cars and Coffee that “THUNDER” and I attended, it was referred to as “a loud and proud show stopper!” In November 2020, it will appear at the incredible “Cars on Kiawah,” car show.

Our son is a “reformed” motorhead that spent his first year out of college building and driving Formula 2000 racers for a team in Pennsylvania. He went on to spend the next five years turning wrenches on Porsches at a European auto shop in Raleigh, NC. In 1998 he bought an inn in Western North Carolina, and today doesn’t even change his own oil! The first time he saw the Pinto, he asked why I bought it. My only answer was that I always wanted one. With him at the wheel, we drove to Costco to fill up the fuel cell. When we pulled up to the pump, literally every customer walked away from their cars to take pictures of the little Pinto.